


In the Time of Our Darkness

by alexcat



Series: For the Fallen [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, M/M, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-09
Updated: 2018-07-09
Packaged: 2019-06-07 15:45:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15222446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexcat/pseuds/alexcat
Summary: Steve and Thor meet again





	In the Time of Our Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place after Thanos used the Infinity Stones to wipe our half the universe. 
> 
> This is the sequel to [**Where Our Desires Are**](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15222344).
> 
> The full poem is the end notes.

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,  
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;  
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,  
To the end, to the end, they remain.  
~ Laurence Binyon (For the Fallen)  
*  
Steve was a mess. He was angry, hurt, and afraid, more afraid than he’d been in his whole life. He had given all he had and he’d failed. When everything mattered, he failed. They had lost the war. 

He saw Thor come into the clearing. He saw the same thing in his eyes. Defeat. 

“Where’d he go? Thor! Where’d he go?” Thor just looked lost. 

Bucky called his name and as soon as Steve looked, he was - gone. Dust. 

He saw the defeat in everyone’s eyes. 

Then he saw the hole in Vision’s head where the last Infinity Stone had been. And he knew. The worst had happened. 

“Oh God,” was all he could say. 

They managed somehow to get together and walk back into T’Challa’s compound. Medics came to tend the wounded, who were coming off the battle field in droves. Everyone pitched in to help. So much blood and pain. He saw Natasha holding a dying warrior, telling her that she would soon see her ancestors. Bruce was using his medical skills to help stop bleeding and bandage wounds. Thor was carrying critically wounded, often in his arms, to the OR they’d set up to care for them.

The day dragged on into a near endless night for them all. It wasn’t until dawn the next day that Steve realized he was wounded. It wasn’t terrible but it needed cleaning and caring for just the same. He went to the infirmary and Bruce cleaned the wound. 

“That would have put anyone else out of it,” Bruce told him. “Good thing you aren’t anyone else.” 

“Not so sure about that, Banner,” Steve told him. Bruce simply nodded. He understood. 

Shuri had survived and taken her brother’s place as ruler. She was flanked by her mother and General Okoye. They visited every bed in the infirmary and saw the comfort and feeding of all.  
She was an amazing young woman, Steve thought, and she’d make an amazing queen. 

Steve sought out Thor. It had been a long, hard road since those few nights so long ago now, but he remembered fondly those stolen moments they’d shared. 

“How are you, my friend?” He asked as he sat beside him in the dining room, which was one of many Shuri’s people had set up to feed the displaced and orphaned. 

“Weary, Rogers. I have never been so tired and heartsick.” 

Steve nodded. He knew what Thor meant. They ate in silence, a sad though companionable silence. After they were finished, they walked out of the compound and into the city. 

“I am sorry about your brother,” Steve told Thor. 

“None of it – this seems quite real yet, does it?” 

Steve shook his head. 

Thor stopped walking and looked at him. “It all began to slide out of control when Stark and Banner accidentally made Ultron.”

Steve nodded. “Stark and I never saw eye to eye but Tony was – is a good man. Banner has issues. Was he really the Hulk for two years?”

Thor nodded. “He was different than he was here. He was still deadly but he talked and lived in an apartment, trained.” 

“I can’t even imagine. And Bruce is the nicest man you’ll ever meet anywhere.”

“Do you think they are all dead?” Thor asked him. 

“They’re gone. Maybe we shouldn’t assume they are dead. I don’t know. It hurts like they are.” 

Thor nodded. It did indeed hurt. 

There was a great deal of mourning and anguish all around them and it was easy to get caught up in it. This was the first time that Steve had been so close to giving in to total despair. He wondered if anything he’d ever done had any meaning. 

Thor somehow sensed this and being of a race that lives many, many years, he was more sanguine when disaster struck. He wanted to ease Steve’s pain, to help him somehow. 

“Do they have ice cream here in Wakanda?” He asked Steve. 

Steve was taken back to a late night ending in ice cream and both of them naked in bed together. It seemed like a lifetime ago and it seemed like yesterday. 

“They do.” He led Thor down one street and over to another where a vendor sold vanilla and chocolate cones of ice cream. Neither had a bit of money but the vendor knew Steve and gave them the treats free. 

Steve was transported back as he watched Thor’s tongue swirl around the creamy chocolate treat. 

They walked on and ate their ice cream, hurrying before it melted and sometimes having to catch it as it dripped down the side of the cone. 

“Will you come to my room with me?” Thor asked. 

Steve’s mouth dropped open. “I – yeah, sure. I can do that.”

The two returned to the royal compound and Steve followed Thor to the room he’d been given. Thor closed the door behind them. 

“I tried to kill him, I drove my ax into his chest. He looked at me and said I should have aimed for his head, then he did something with the glove and then he was gone,” Thor told him. “I needed you to know that.”

“I couldn’t fight him back. He was stronger than I am.” 

They sat on the small sofa in Thor’s quarters and looked at one another. Steve wanted to ask him if he remembered, if it had mattered. It _had_ mattered to him, more than he’d ever wanted anyone to know. 

“Do you ever think about those nights in New York?” Thor asked. 

“Yeah.” Steve didn’t know what else to say. He felt as tongue tied as he had when he was young. 

“I’d like – I – would you stay here with me? I don’t want to be alone.” Thor wouldn’t actually look at him as he spoke, almost as if he, too, were afraid Steve might not be remembering what he was.

Steve reached out and touched Thor’s leg, giving him a gentle squeeze just above his knee. “I’ll stay.” 

They said nothing for several minutes. Thor turned to Steve and pulled him close, not kissing him or saying anything, just hugging him close and gently patting his back with one hand. Steve hugged him back and lay his head against Thor’s head. Eventually they moved their heads so they could look into each other’s eyes, so they could kiss. 

The kiss was like tossing a match into gasoline. Fire ignited as the kiss became wild, passionate. They hurried to strip off their clothes, kissing and touching in between each garment. Once naked, they both began touching the other, hands exploring desperately, hungry mouths murmuring and kissing as if they’d both die if they stopped. 

They couldn’t be bothered to move to the bed. Thor lay back on the sofa and pulled Steve on top of him. They still kissed as they ground their hips together. Steve felt like even then he wasn’t close enough. It was almost as if he wanted to crawl inside Thor’s skin. 

“I need - ” Steve started to say but Thor knew. He moved under Steve, turning over somehow. 

Without delay, Steve pressed into Thor, too impatient and needy to be gentle. Neither of them wanted gentle. They just wanted. Thor got onto his knees to give Steve a little better leverage. Steve found himself slamming into Thor, grunting with the effort of every thrust and Thor meeting him with the same amount of force. 

It was over quickly, Steve simply collapsing on Thor’s back, kissing the back of his neck. They lay still for several minutes, not speaking, not needing to. 

Eventually they moved to the bed and lay down, still not speaking but holding one another through the night, shivering and lost like orphaned children. Both of them knew that they were the strongest opposition that Earth had to offer against evil and they had been beaten and beaten disastrously. 

They knew that none of that mattered in the end. They would fight on.

**Author's Note:**

> For the Fallen  
> By Laurence Binyon
> 
> With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,  
> England mourns for her dead across the sea.  
> Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,  
> Fallen in the cause of the free.
> 
> Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal  
> Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,  
> There is music in the midst of desolation  
> And a glory that shines upon our tears.
> 
> They went with songs to the battle, they were young,  
> Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.  
> They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;  
> They fell with their faces to the foe.
> 
> They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:  
> Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.  
> At the going down of the sun and in the morning  
> We will remember them.
> 
> They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;  
> They sit no more at familiar tables of home;  
> They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;  
> They sleep beyond England’s foam.
> 
> But where our desires are and our hopes profound,  
> Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,  
> To the innermost heart of their own land they are known  
> As the stars are known to the Night;
> 
> As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,  
> Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;  
> As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,  
> To the end, to the end, they remain.


End file.
